Voice Portfolio Entry 6: Articulation - Exercises To Help Correctly Apply It To Speech

Introduction:

In Phonetics and Phoneology, Articulation is the art of using the tongue, lips, jaw and other speech organs in order to produce sounds of speech.

Sound is simply produced by expelling air from the lungs.  However, to vary the sound quality in a way that can be useful for speaking, two speech organs normally need to come close together to contact each other, so as to create an obstruction that shapes the air in a particular fashion. 

The point of maximum obstruction is known as the place of articulation.  For example, when making a "P" sound, the upper and lower parts of the lips would come together in order to produce the sound of the letter.  The sound of the letter is produced by the blockage of air that the two parts of the lips are obstracting which is caused by the build-up of air pressure.

The Study And Practice Of Articulation:

During our session for 'Developing Voice For The Actor' this week, the group had continued to look at their own individual articulation.   Throughout this session, we took part in some practical exercises to see if we could further develop our own vocalisation skills.

    

Our teacher had began this session by having the group look at the layout of the The Oral Cavity (Mouth).  This was important as it would be able to help us all understand what we could all accomplish with our own articulation, and to also notify us which areas of our mouthes contains tension.  Through knowing these areas, I could enhance my vocalisation skills to result in me to present a new form of projection and correct articulation. 

    

The main areas of The Oral Cavity, which is to do with both pronunciation and vocalisation, consisted of:

For this session, our teacher had wanted us all to bring in a pocket mirror, to help us visualise each area of The Oral Cavity, and to perform a few exercises, with our mouths, which would possibly help develop our individual articulate skills.  We had also performed a few physical exercises from previous sessionso help us with focus and maintain a strong performing body.

The Process Of Exercises In Lesson And The Effects Taken From Them:

Before we had began our process for the Articulation exercises, our teacher had wanted us all to focus and consider on 3 main things:

1. To relax our bodies to the maximum.
2. Keep correct physical posture.
3. Correctly develop own individual breathe control.

Through these three points, we would all recieve the maximum effect to further developing our own individual Articulation skills.

Below, I'll be listing each exercise performed in a non-specific order, detailing what we had done within them and the effects that I'd gained from each:

Exercise 1. The Semi Supine:

For this exercise, we had performed 'The Alexander Technique', which required me to lie on my back to properly control and focus on your breathing, to result in a more relaxed state of mind, both physically and vocally.

Voice Portfolio Entry 3: Delving Into The Alexander Technique Link: http://sdcperformancens.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/voice-portfolio-entry-4-posture-use-of.html

Above, I have included the link to a earlier entry in my Voice Portfolio's further detailing the process of the 'Alexander Technique', and the effects that I had contracted from performing it.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• I had felt much more relaxed throughout my whole body than I had done prior Alexander Technique.
• Both my body and voice had felt much more lighter than before, which had enabled me to develop the correctly positioned posture and make me speak more slowly, which had resulted in my words to become much more punctual and articluate.

Exercise 2. The Spinal Role:

Through doing this, I can maintain a more steady physical body posture and also keep a strong breathing pattern.  We had done a few physical stretches and flops to get all of our bodies in gear for the process. We had then performed a spinal role, where we had to bend our upper bodies down towards the ground, with knees bent. After doing this, we had then flopped around our arms, and then we slowly rose up to correct posture with our heads being the final thing to be correctly aligned/balanced. We had done this exercise 2 times within the process before we had moved onto the next exercise.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• It had made me become much more energetic in what we were going to be achieveing in this process.
• My body had felt a lot more relaxed post spinal role compared to before.
• My body also felt a lot more warmer than before, maybe to do with the spinal role and letting all of the blood go through all of the areas in my body.

Exercise 3. Producing A Humming Sound:

By performing a humming sound through the use of, primarily, my throat, it would allow my vocal folds to warm up, resulting in any preparation for my vocalisation performance to enhance.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• Having had a little bit of a blocked throat before performing this exercise, it had felt much more clearer after I had done it.
• Since my main focus was on my vocal folds, I could feel them vibrating a lot more than if I had done this exercise beforehand without focusing on them.

Exercise 4. Stretching The Muscles:

This increased the overall movement within my body, since it released any unwanted tensions within it.  It had also given me much more energy and had also increased my overall focus towards both my physical posture and vocal folds, for better articulation both physically and vocally.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• Before perfoming this exercise, I did have some unwanted tension in my shoulder blades, and after having performed this exercise, the tension did go away, resulting in me to gain the benefits from the exercise.
• I felt much more active for the later activities since my body had felt free of movement with no obstacles, such as tension.

Exercise 5. The Tongue Exercise:

For this exercise, I had moved my tongue, around my whole mouth, in a certain pattern, as many times as I could to both release any unwanted tensions that is specifically placed within the Jaw area of the head, and also get a good exercise which tests the strength of my tongue, all of which would be needed towards the practicing and enhancment of my articulation.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• Since I had unwanted tension in my Jaw area, I did have it released after having done this exercise.  I have allowed my Jaw to stretch in all directions due to the purpose of this exercise, and I had gained the proper benefits from doing so.
• I did feel that sensation of a workout within my tongue whilst performing the exercise, it did get a little bit harder before I had finished the exercise, but I'd managed to pull through test and acknowledge the physical strength of my tongue.

Exercise 6. Releasing The Jaw:

By doing this, I had released any more unwanted tension that would of been in my Jaw, to enhance the feeling of movement, and to further increase the vocabulary in my speech.

Evaluation Of Exercise:

• Much like with the 'Tongue Exercise', I had released the unwanted tension that was located within my Jaw area, and it did, indeed, enhance the feeling of movement, as previously mentioned.
• After having done the exercise, I felt that it was a lot easier to project speech, probably due to the fact that the unwanted tension had been casted away, but also that my whole Oral Cavity had a massive stretch from doing it, which may have been the main cause overall for the purpose of this exercise.

Exercise 7. Projecting a Still Tone With A Closed Oral Cavity:

For this exercise, I had used a still tone, which was released from the back of my throat, and I had to produce the sound of a siren.  I had to perform the siren for as long as I could until I had run out of breath, to which we had repeated a second time, to see if I could produce the sound for a longer duration, and I can see this being a good exercise to redo for my vocal folds in the future.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• Much like the 'Humming Sound' exercise, I did have increased focus on my vocal folds and I did, indeed, feel more vibrations within that part of my throat whilst performing this exercise.
• For the second time that I'd performed this exercise, it did feel as though I had lasted longer in terms of air capacity, maybe due to the fact that I'd gotten my body used to the exercise and that for the second time, my lungs had allowed more air to be accessed when I'd inhaled a large breath before projecting the still tone.

Exercise 8. Nasal Cavity Sound Effect:

For this exercise, I had to perform and project a certain sound through my Nasal Cavity (Nose).  This had increased the air intake through my Nasal Cavity and I can see this being useful when it comes to the enhancment of my articulation.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• I could definately feel the vibrations coursing through my nasal cavity during this exercise, and it had made my eyes feel a little bit weird also due to this.
• Performing this exercise did release any unneeded blockage, and had allowed me to have proper inhalation through my nasal cavity after doing so.

Exercise 9. “Why fly so high?”:

With this exercise, I had to project my voice by performing with different tones and pitches of voice using both my Nasal and Oral Cavity.

The lines we had spoken were:

"Why fly so high? Said Naughty Nora, whilst eating an apple, with Zoe the Zebra in the Zoo"

(High/Light Voice)(Blocked Nasal)        (Open, Deep voice)       (Beating the upper chest)

Evaluation For Exercise:

• For the "Why fly so high" part of the exercise, when trying to project a high/light voice, it did feel like my voice was 'braking' since I naturally have a very deep voice, but after having done the exercise again, I did manage to successfully pull of a high/light voice for the purpose of this part of the so called song. 

Exercise 10. Tongue Twisters:

For this exercise, we had perfomed a series of lines, which had a rhythm within it, with the pronunciation of each consonant within each word spoken.

The lines we had spoken were:

"What did you do to die today, what did you do to do. The dragon will come at the beat of the drum, a rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat tum, what did you do do to die today, at quarter to two to two today at quarter to two to do."

To make this exercise a lot harder, and more old fashioned, we had to perform the exercise by changing the 't' sound in the words and replacing it with a 'd' sound instead. I say old fashioned because this is what actors do for a performance if the play takes place a long time before the present day.

Evaluation For Exercise:


Although I did have a hard time keeping up with the rest of the group with this sort of song, I did discover some benefits from performing it:

• Having listened to my voice whilst announcing the words, I could hear the hidden consonants within the words being said, resulting in my speech to become much more punctual and articulate overall.
• Having performed the breath control exercises prior to this did help with the flow of air I had needed in order to project each word with correct articulation.

Exercise 11. Working With Breath Control:


For the third exercise within this process, we had gone through 2 mini exercises which had required each of us to use our breath, whether it was to hold it for an amount of time or to release the air for as long as we could after inhaling a large amount of air.

To start off with, our teacher had made us perform the exercise which had consisted of us breathing in air for 4 beats, and then holding it for another 4 beats, until we had to release the air within another 4 beats. We continued this exercise multiple times with the amount of beats increasing for each. We had started with 4 beats, going to 6, and then finally finishing with 8 beats.

After performing that exercise, we had waited until or breathing pattern had gone back to normal again, until we were ready to perform the next one. This exercise was different than the previous because this time we had to exhale an amount of air for as long as we could.

Evaluation For Exercise:

• Thanks to the first exercise I had performed prior to this, and also gaining the benefits from also performing the 'Alexander Technique', I was able to have a large amount of air capacity available for the purpose of this exercise.
• After having done the exercise, I felt that my breathing pattern had changed, only slightly, to the point where I was actually breathing slower than before. This change of breathing pattern, strangely, didn't feel unnatural to me compared to what it was before, which would of been my normal breathing pattern.
• I felt that I was speaking much more clearly when using my words since I can, having performed the exercise, now use the air to make my words be more articulate.

Analysis On How And Why Exercises In This Area Can Help Improve Vocal Performance:

From the information that I've gathered from my thorough evaluations of each of the exercises that I had done in my voice lesson, I have come to the conclusion that spending more time on these particular exercises could help to improve my overall air intake, ability to pronounce words properly and to enhance my overall stage presence for when I may have to start shouting on stage.

Obviously, more so, when being graded on the vocal quality of my performance for any project, doing exercises in this area will make my the letters in the words that I say come out more than if I had not done the exercises prior, making my speech much more clearer to understand.